by Kaley Colter
“No, of course I don’t endorse that kind of behaviour. I just…got frustrated and lost my temper. It happens to the best of us, am I right? No, I never treat Ellie like that. Isn’t that right, Ellie?”
Ellie looked down, defeated. “Yes,” she said quietly.
Nick couldn’t recall ever being so angry. What kind of hold did this man have over her? There had to be something more to it. And he sure as hell was going to find out what it was.
“Marcus, get out of my office. I was still speaking with Ellie when you came bursting in, and I’d like to finish, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Clearly flustered, Marcus bowed his head in deference and left.
Nick walked over to Ellie. She was hugging her arms around her chest and biting down hard on her bottom lip. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
She nodded a little too eagerly, and he could tell that she was trying very hard to be brave. “I can deal with Marcus. I’ve dealt with him for a long time. I’m used to it.”
“I can help you.”
Ellie looked up at him intently for a minute, then turned away and sighed. “It’s no big deal. Really. Anyways, I have to get going. We have another client this afternoon.” She looked back at him when she reached the door and smiled timidly. “Thanks for everything.”
After Ellie walked out of his office, Nick fell into his chair and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. How was he supposed to protect her now? And what if they didn’t come back? He sighed. He had hired them for the day after tomorrow. It would be a very agonizing wait, but at this point, he had no other choice. After all, it wasn’t like she belonged to him. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t just throw her over his shoulder and bring her home.
Hell and damnation. What had come over him? He hardly knew the woman, and yet here he was wanting to take her away and keep her for himself. He wanted to wrap her up in cotton and protect her from every person and thing in the world that could harm her. It was like something in him had changed the second he laid eyes on her. For the first time in a very long time, he felt a spark of passion and connection—and he never realized how listless he had been feeling until now. Maybe that’s what happens when you throw yourself into your career at twenty-two years old and work like a slave for ten years to build up the company of your dreams. And as much as he enjoyed his work, he had to admit that he had lost a part of himself by spending every second of his time on his company. He knew without a doubt that his younger self would have dreaded turning into the hard-ass that he had become. That was one of the perils of ambition, he supposed.
He didn’t know exactly what it was about Ellie that gave him such a rush of vitality. Maybe it was her kind, gentle, sweet-as-sugar nature. Or the adorably timid expression on her face whenever she looked at him. He couldn’t be sure, but it really didn’t matter to him. He wanted to make her his.
* * * *
Ellie rested her head back against the car seat and closed her eyes, trying to keep calm as Marcus continued screaming at her.
“Do you want to live on the streets, Ellie?”
“No.”
“No, what?”
“No, I do not want to live on the streets.”
“Then why did you make a fool out of me?”
“Marcus, listen to me. You know I didn’t say anything. Nick was the one who told you to let go of my arm. How could I have controlled that?”
“‘Nick?’ Are you on a first-name basis with him now? Is that what you were doing in his office? Flirting with him? I will not employ a whore, Ellie.”
Ellie squeezed her eyelids tighter together and gritted her teeth. “I’m not a whore.”
“You’re a whore if I damn well call you a whore. Now get your fat ass out of the car and go get the food for the next client.”
Ellie opened her eyes and looked out the window at the dilapidated building in front of her. They were back at their house. She got out of the car and ran inside, shutting the door behind her and breathing a sigh of relief at finally being away from her stepbrother.
As she made her way into the kitchen to retrieve the food, she realized that Marcus’s tantrum wasn’t bothering her as much as it usually did. She kept thinking of Nick, and couldn’t help but smile when she remembered how he had called her “sweetheart.” Nobody had ever called her that before. In fact, she had never been called by any endearment before.
She remembered the way he gently lifted her up and placed a hand on her lower back when he guided her to his office. She couldn’t help but feel like he had a certain power over her—a power that was inextricable with the kindest tenderness, and one that she wanted to submit herself to. And she didn’t really understand it because, not only had she never known a man to embody both power and kindness, but she had also only ever submitted to someone out of necessity, never out of desire.
When Nick had told her he could help her, she had desperately wanted to ask him how. She had wanted to reach out and grab the dream of safety and shelter he seemed to be offering, and for a moment, she had even thought she would. But then reality hit, and she came to the hard realization that she meant nothing to him and that he was probably asking only as a courtesy.
As she stacked the boxes into her arms, she reprimanded herself for dwelling so much on this man she had talked to for no more than ten minutes. She knew that he probably wouldn’t even spend a second of his time thinking of her. And why would he? He was an incredibly successful, incredibly attractive man. Why would he be interested in a penniless caterer with no social skills, no backbone, big hips and chubby thighs?
Get your head out of the clouds.
Ellie’s cheeks burned when she realized how stupid she was being. She was nothing to him, and she would always be nothing to him.
Chapter 3
Nick strummed his fingers on his desk impatiently. It had been one hell of a morning. His coworkers had not been shy about telling him that he was in a terrible mood, and he readily admitted to it, because he had been waiting for the clock to strike noon and his caterers to arrive ever since coming in to work. Actually, he had been waiting since the moment Ellie had left two days before.
He glanced up at the clock. It was 11:45 a.m. The last time they had come half an hour early and set themselves up in the office kitchen. Nick pushed his chair back from his desk and stood up. Maybe he should stand post by the kitchen so that he could catch them as soon as they arrived.
After striding quickly through the office to his desired location, he stopped himself at the door when he thought he heard voices coming from inside. He stood outside and listened. It was Ellie and Marcus. He breathed a sigh of relief at the wait finally being over, but just as he was about to walk into the room, he stopped himself once more. It became instantly clear that the discussion they were having was a heated one. Most importantly, however, Ellie sounded extremely upset, and he wanted to find out why without Marcus changing into an obsequious idiot at the sight of him.
“Marcus, I will not wear that dress. It’s humiliating. It barely covers my panties!”
“I’m not going to ask you again, Ellie. Go to the bathroom and change. Right now.”
“No.”
“You don’t get it, do you? If you don’t do what you’re told, we’re finished. And that not only means you get no more money. It also means you’re out on the streets. Because I will not have some ungrateful little bitch living under my roof. So you see, you’ll do whatever I tell you to do. For all intents and purposes, I own you, Ellie.”
There was a pause. Then, “Go to hell, Marcus.”
The second Nick heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh and Ellie’s soft yelp of pain, he burst into the room and strode over to Marcus, towering over him with lethal ferocity. He grabbed Marcus’s wrist and squeezed it in his powerful grip until Marcus fell to his knees and cried out in pain.
“If you ever touch her again,” Nick said, his voice dangerously quiet, “I will take a lot of pleasure in making sure you never to
uch anything again.” He squeezed even harder, and after he heard Marcus’s wrist crack, he released it with a shove, watching as Marcus fell to the floor and cradled his injured arm. “Get out.”
Marcus stumbled to his feet and shot a vicious look at Ellie. “We’re through,” he hissed before scrambling out of the room and slamming the door behind him.
With Marcus gone, Nick harnessed his anger and turned his attention to Ellie. She was on the floor, leaning up on one arm, and staring into her lap with hot tears streaming down her face.
He approached her slowly, gently lifted her into his arms and carried her to the coach at the back of the room, setting her down and then sweeping the hair back from her face to inspect the cut on her cheek. Nick gritted his teeth. It looked like the bastard was wearing some kind of ring and had backhanded her. After dabbing away the blood with a tissue, he started to tend to her tears, cupping her slender face in both of his hands and wiping her tears away with his thumbs.
“Sweetheart,” he called softly, but she didn’t seem to hear him. She was staring blankly ahead of her, a look of utter despair written on her face. “Sweetheart, look at me.” She slowly turned her head and raised her sad eyes up to meet his. “What is it? What’s going on?”
She buried her head into her hands and let out a sob. “I…I don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve just lost my job and my home. I have to go back. I have to beg for him to take me back. If he doesn’t…I don’t know what I’ll do. He has to take me back.”
When she started to get up, Nick gently pushed her back on the couch and turned her face towards his.
“You don’t understand,” she said softly. “I don’t have a choice.”
“Why does he have such a powerful hold over you? He’s more than your business partner, isn’t he?”
Ellie wiped her eyes and sniffled. “He’s my stepbrother.”
“And you’re living with him?”
“I’ve been living with him since I was fifteen. My mom died, my dad remarried, and after a year, he and his new wife ran off. Marcus was the only person I knew. He agreed to let me live with him, as long as I paid rent. After high school I found a job at a restaurant and I’ve been working there as a waitress ever since, but I’ve never been able to save up enough money to move out. It all goes to rent and bills and food. And our house and car are really old, so I’ve had to put a lot of money into repairs, too.
“I’ve always been a good cook, and a couple months ago Marcus suggested we start a catering business, and I thought it was a way I could save up some extra money and maybe get a place of my own. He would buy all of the supplies and look for clients, and I would cook, and he would give me a cut of the money. It’s not that much, but I was hoping it would add up over the next year.”
Nick took a deep breath to calm himself. He knew exactly what game Marcus had been playing. “How much money did he give you from the catering job you did for me?”
“Sixty-five dollars.”
“I paid Marcus three hundred. Don’t you see? He’s keeping you tied to him so that he can continue taking money from you. He’s never going to pay you enough so that you can leave. He’s never going to let you go.”
“It doesn’t matter, though,” she said quietly. “The money I make as a waitress isn’t enough for me to get an apartment. I have nowhere else to go. I need to go back.”
“No. You can’t go back to him. Ellie, listen to me. I can help you.”
She stared at him solemnly for a minute. “How?” she asked in a small voice.
“You can quit your waitressing job and come work for me full-time.”
“But, in what way?”
“As a personal chef.”
Ellie shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I would still have nowhere to live.”
“It would be a live-in position.”
She paused for a moment and then looked away. “I can’t,” she said quietly.
“Why?”
“I won’t let myself become a burden on someone I don’t even know.”
“Burden? But you’d be doing a job.”
She turned towards him, a hurt look written on her face. “Please don’t. I know you’re only saying all this because you feel sorry for me.”
She got up and headed for the door, but before she could get halfway there, Nick had captured her in his arms and turned her around so that she was pressed against his chest.
Ellie pushed against him to free herself, but she couldn’t loosen his hold. “Let go,” she whispered sadly.
“I will not allow you to go back to him.”
She let her forehead fall against his chest. “There’s no other way.”
“Ellie, please, I want to help you. I want to make sure you’re safe.”
She shook her head, confused. “But, why?”
“I…I don’t know. I want to—I need to do something to help you.” He heard Ellie sigh, and knew that she was doubting him. “And besides, I actually do need a chef. When I hired my current housekeeper, I had expected she would cook, but let’s just say she’s not the best at it.” He laughed. “You have to promise you won’t tell her that, though.”
She finally looked up at him, and he could tell that she was trying to make a decision by the way she was nibbling on her bottom lip. He smiled. She really was adorable.
“Hey,” he said softly, reaching out to capture her chin in his hand and stroke her bottom lip with his thumb. “Stop biting down on that lip.”
His cock pressed against his jeans the second that he touched her soft, plush bottom lip. He wanted to lick it to see what it tasted like, although he already knew that it would taste delectably sweet. He wanted to slide his tongue in between her lips and ravage her pretty little mouth until she was limp in his arms and as drunk with need as he was.
You’re really not helping yourself here.
Nick flicked his eyes up to hers. She was breathing hard and her pupils were dilated.
“Okay,” she said in a soft, breathy voice. “I’ll do it.”
Nick swept his thumb over her lip one last time before taking his hand away. Ellie swallowed hard, and he nearly let out a groan when she shifted against him and pressed her soft belly against his throbbing cock.
God help me.
* * * *
Ellie’s heart was beating so hard she wondered if Nick could feel it against his chest. She didn’t really understand what was going on. The instant he had touched her mouth, she had felt herself turn to jelly in his arms. She had never felt her body react like that to a man before, and she was a little scared of what it could mean. Heat was pooling between her thighs, and she rubbed them together to ease the ache, but it only made it worse. She tried to push away from him again, but he wouldn’t loosen his hold and she only succeeded in pulling her T-shirt down low over her chest.
She saw Nick’s eyes sweep over her breasts and her nipples hardened into stiff peaks under his gaze. She blushed, knowing that her thin cotton bra did nothing to hide her arousal. When she looked up into his face, her pussy clenched down hard at the dark look in his eyes.
He reached out his hand, and she hoped he would return it to her bottom lip so she could dart out her tongue and taste it, but he went lower, lightly stroking her neck and shoulders and sending delicious shivers through her entire body.
He was taking his time, delicately brushing his fingertips lower and lower until she was panting, desperate for him to touch her breasts. She wasn’t sure why she wanted him to touch her there so badly. Nobody had ever touched her there before, but for some reason she was screaming in her head for him to keep going lower. And when he finally swept his fingers over the soft, pillowy mounds, she buried her head into his chest and whimpered.
Before Ellie could even open her eyes, Nick had lifted her up and pressed her hard against the wall. When she tilted her head back to look up at him, he brushed his fingers across her nipple and pinched it through her shirt, smiling as she cried out at the intensity of it.
<
br /> “So responsive,” he said, his voice so rough and deep that Ellie almost didn’t hear him. He cupped his hand around her breast and hummed in approval when she arched her back, seeking more of his touch. “Good girl,” he praised. Ellie moaned. “You like that, don’t you?” he asked, pinching her nipple harder.
“Please,” she whispered, throwing her head back against the wall and closing her eyes.
“Please, what? Tell me what you need, Ellie.”
But Ellie couldn’t speak. And even if she could, she wouldn’t have known what to say.
* * * *
Nick was in hell. He knew he should stop. He knew he should be more cautious with her. But it was all he could do to keep himself from pulling her T-shirt down over her breasts and sucking at her nipples until she came.
She was squirming beneath him and he could tell that she was hurting with need. He reached down and parted her thighs, watching Ellie shut her eyes and whimper as he moved his hand under her skirt and lightly ran a finger over the crotch of her soaking wet panties.
“You’re so wet,” he rasped, smiling as he saw her blush. He hadn’t thought it was possible to get any harder, but seeing her get adorably shy proved him wrong. He brought his finger to his lips and sucked it into his mouth. “Your pussy’s so sweet. I could spend hours licking it and making you come over and over in my mouth.”
When she started to buckle beneath him, he swiftly moved his arm under her ass and lifted her up until they were at eye level. He brought his mouth down hard on hers, and when she parted her lips in surrender, he grabbed the back of her neck with his hand and thrust his tongue deep inside her mouth.
She tasted like sweet peppermint tea. He couldn’t get enough. He plunged his tongue into her mouth again and again, drinking from her lips like a man dying of thirst. And she was opening herself up to his touches, mewling into his mouth and digging her fingers into his chest and timidly exploring his mouth with her tongue.